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Motorbike Heroes

Tuesday, 28 August 2007

I don't know about you but I reckon riding a bike that fast would be pretty frightening. Well there's an Aussie who started doing that when he was just 14 and is now close to being a world champion. I had to check him out.

Presented by Nathan Bazley (episode 23)

CASEY STONER: You have to feel fear, I mean, that's part of what adrenaline is, is actual fear of what you're doing and it makes your heart pump.

Casey Stoner has every right to feel fear.

His job is to push a high-powered racebike around a track at 330 kms/hr with just a helmet and padded leathers for protection.

At that speed when things go wrong, they go seriously wrong.

But if Casey is scared, he isn't showing it.

He might only be 21 but he's already racing like a veteran and sitting on top of the World Championship Rankings.

Last week he blitzed the field in the Czech Moto GP, leading from start to finish.

CASEY STONER: I've always kind of had, since I was little, a very competitive sort of attitude, that I've always wanted to try and win and try to be the best I could in everything I could.

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: Casey started riding when he was just three years old, on a bike pretty much like this one.

And the year after, he competed in his first race against kids twice his age.

He went on to win his first Australian title at six. I couldn't even ride a bike till I was ten!

When he was only 14, his Mum and Dad sold their home in New South Wales and lived in a caravan in England so he could start road racing.

The adventure certainly paid off, with Casey becoming one of the best riders on the planet.

But despite risking his neck on a weekly basis, it's not the danger that scares him most.

REPORTER: Be honest, how much do you hate media interviews?

CASEY STONER: Quite a lot.

Talking to the media is the thing that makes him most uncomfortable.

But despite the constant interviews that inevitably come after so many wins, Casey's family and his 19 year-old wife Adriana try to live a quiet life.

In case you were wondering, Casey met Adriana after a race in Australia when she asked him to sign her stomach.

But Casey Stoner isn't the only young Aussie carving them up on two wheels.

Chris Vermuelen is from Queensland and races alongside Casey in the MotoGP. He's number four in the rankings.

CHRIS VERMEULEN: When I'm racing the bike I'm a completely different person. I'm 100 per cent focused on what I'm doing.

He came to the sport through dirt bike racing, something he still does when he goes home to his mum and dad's on holidays. That - and driving around in his hotrod.

If Casey get points in the next race he'll be world champion and if Chris keeps going the way he is he'll be right up there with him.

That'll be an awesome achievement for two country kids from Australia.

CHRIS VERMEULEN: People are saying, 'are you going to be the next Mick Doohan or Wayne Gardner', or whatever. But I just tell them simply that I want to be the first Chris Vermeulen, and I want to go out there and win as many races as I can.

CASEY STONER: It's something we have to work at, week in, week out to try and become better at it. We're all just out there chasing our dreams, I think.